We’ve been told 2016 is going to be a great year for JNC fans that are diecast collectors, and here’s the first evidence of that. Photos of a Hot Wheels 1977 Chevy LUV have been leaked. Of course, JNCers know this car as the Isuzu Faster, a mini pickup built to go head to head against the likes of the Toyota Hilux and Datsun 620. Continue reading
The folks at JCCS have an announcement to make — a new show just for 80s and 90s Japanese cars. Street Neo Classics will give a owners of Bubble Era machines a chance to show off their rides.
Details have not been announced yet, but save the date: October 18 from 10am to 3pm at Toyota USA Headquarters in Torrance, California.
Now that we’ve determined which JNC had the coolest pop-up headlights let’s focus, like Sir Mix-A-Lot, on rears. Back in the day automakers were largely confined to sealed beam headlights, but out back designers had free reign to design insect, jet or spacecraft-inspired shapes. Some even tried to hide them altogether.
Which JNC had the coolest taillights?
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Which JNC had the coolest pop-up headlights?” Continue reading
For almost as long as there’s been Hot Wheels, there have been customizers. Lately the trend in modified Hot Wheels, especially with the new generation of collectors, has been the use of patina to emulate worn out, barn find, or rat rodded cars. Some have been really outstanding, while others suffer from “Titanic syndrome” where the idea seems to be the more rust the better. With that in mind, we once again we turn to our friend Mark Jones (aka Scale-Master), for his take on weathering and adding patina to Hot Wheels cars. Continue reading
An image for the a recolor of the Hot Wheels Datsun 510 wagon was revealed online today. The second issue of the 2015 graphic scheme (the first one having been released earlier this year in yellow) is a sinister black with beige and green racing stripes. We are proud to report that the JNC inkan is featured on the rear doors. This is, of course, a diecast version of designer Jun Imai’s actual car. Continue reading
Do you wish you could have a 1960s Honda F1 car of your very own? A British outfit called Stuart-Taylor Motorsport is building a life-size replica of the 1968 Honda RA302, an interesting choice considering the original’s morbid history. Continue reading
In 1965, a motorcycle distributor named Pride and Clark became the first company to officially sell Toyotas in the UK. Toyota recently celebrated 50 years in the United Kingdom with a gathering of classics, many of which had their own local flavor and were models never sold in the US. Continue reading
The pop-up headlight: automotive eyes personified, endearing relic, or just two additional unnecessary points-of-failure? Whatever you think of them, they defined an automotive era. I happen to reap a weird, endless joy from that delay between when you flick the switch and when they actually pop-up or retract.
Which JNC had the coolest pop-up headlights?
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s the greatest Japanese nostalgic hatchback?” Continue reading
Do you want to see a Lego Land Cruiser set? There’s a 40-series up for evaluation right now, and if it gets enough votes it could become an official Lego kit. Continue reading
The news came down this morning, dropping like a bombshell in the diecast world. For 2016, Matchbox will add two Japanese icons to its lineup. The first is a no-brainer: the ND Miata is Mazda’s latest sportster and the most exciting new car to come down the pike in a long time. The second surprised the hell out of everyone: the Hakosuka Skyline. Continue reading
With a small but passionate maker of sporty cars and oddball engines taking center stage at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, all manner of Hiroshima steel could be found on the show grounds. A seemingly mundane Mazda RX-7 looked like any number of cars you might see at a weekend SCCA race, but this little rotary actually has huge, huge provenance. This very car, back in 1981, outright won the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Europe’s other backbreaking endurance race. Continue reading
In the first of a series, JNC is teaming up with our friends at Petrolicious to launch simultaneously a video and an article about historically significant Japanese cars. Be sure to check out the excellent Petrolicious and their beautifully shot short films about vintage cars.
Nowadays there are few cars from Japan’s Miracle Years that escape the collector’s eye, but long before every grandma’s Toyota Corona or obscure Isuzu was sought for by street tuner and speculator alike, the Datsun 510 stood alone at the forefront of the classic J-tin vanguard. Continue reading
The hatchback. Loved everywhere in the world but the US. Rather than embrace its practicality, we Americans refuse to date anyone driving one and insist on adding a smaller, shallower cargo area that extends over the rear wheels like a portable bathtub. Luckily, Japan has no such hangups about the hatch, and has created some cracking ones.
What’s the greatest Japanese nostalgic hatchback?
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s the best shade of JNC yellow?” Continue reading
In Part 01 of the coverage we exclusively covered Toyotas. It was a pretty big upload and there were probably too many Toyotas to feature all at once. Datsuns were relatively sparse by comparison, but what they lacked in quantity they made up for in quality. If you noticed the teaser picture at the end of the previous installment you saw a Datsun 510 laying down a massive burnout, So lets start with that car. Continue reading
You never know what you’ll encounter at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Meandering through the paddocks, we came across the 1976 Kojima Engineering KE007, a Japanese Formula One car that was poised to become a formidable challenger in F1 a decade before McLaren-Hondas began their domination. It was also funded, largely in part, by bananas. Continue reading
For this installment of JNC‘s Art Corner, we feature another artist from Japan. U井T吾, 27, is a Kyoto-based artist whose day job is in character design for board games and social gaming. Fortunately for us, he’s also an enthusiast of old Japanese cars and bikes, which he renders beautifully in a very Japanese manga-like style. Continue reading
You know it ain’t no ordinary car show when you tilt your head up to see a pair of Mazda race cars in the sky. Twisting on a lattice of white steel, the Central Feature at the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed was an homage to racing successes of Mazda at the greatest motorsports festival in the world. Continue reading
Over the weekend Mitsubishi Motors has unveiled the very, very last of the Lancer Evolution line. Fans of the Flanked by other great sports cars from the company’s past, the Final Edition Evo made its debut at the Mitsubishi Owners’ Day event at the firm’s US headquarters in Cypress, California amidst thousands of dedicated Mitsubishi fans that had arrived from all over the west coast in Starions, 3000GTs, and even Delicas. Continue reading
If July could be a color, it would be yellow. With the golden light of our sun shining brightly as ever, beating down on us, and giving Superman his powers, it is perhaps time to ponder a hue not so common on cars as they once were. One of the most distinctive shades of yellow ever created was simply called 112 Yellow in Nissan’s palette. Like a highlighter on wheels, it set Datsun 240Zs aglow, but you don’t have to take our word for it.
What’s the best shade of JNC yellow?
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Which nostalgic feature should be brought back?” Continue reading
Take a gander at what is likely the lowest-mileage AE86 hatch for sale in the world. Listed for sale in Osaka, Japan, this true JDM Toyota Corolla Levin GT Apex reads only 18,260 km on the odometer, or 11,346 miles. Continue reading
